Thermal management of lithium-ion batteries is crucial for enhancing the performance and safety of electric vehicles. This study proposes a novel liquid cooling plate featuring gradually varied circular notched fins (GV-CNF) to improve the thermal management of a commercial LiFePO₄ battery. The results indicate that GV-CNF provides a more uniform temperature distribution, a lower T_a, and a reduced ∆P compared to circular fins under identical conditions, leading to a 41.1% improvement in the comprehensive performance evaluation indicator (TP). Notably, the value of TP increases with the height of the coolant channel; however, when the channel height exceeds 4 mm, the change in TP value becomes minimal. Afterward, further studies were conducted to investigate the effects of different inlet–outlet configurations on the cooling performance. The single-inlet, dual-outlet configuration (Type III) for the liquid cooling plate not only reduces the T_a value but also exhibits the lowest ∆P and a smaller high-temperature region. Additionally, when the outlet spacing (L) is 81 mm, the lowest T_a recorded is 27.87 °C, and the ∆P is 3.13 Pa, indicating that this is the best outlet spacing. Additionally, comparative analysis of GV-CNF with serpentine-channel and circular-fin cooling structures reveals that the GV-CNF design effectively reduces the maximum temperature of the battery module, minimizes localized heat accumulation, and maintains low energy consumption, demonstrating superior overall thermal performance.

Heat sinks for high-power devices are frequently manufactured via integral casting to ensure long-term stability and superior thermal performance. This study investigates the effects of the location, number, and arrangement of casting gates on heat transfer performance and temperature uniformity. The results indicate that positioning gates on the inlet side enhances heat transfer, whereas an outlet-side arrangement improves temperature uniformity. The 3-O configuration (casting gate diameter of 3 mm positioned at the front) was observed to exhibit the optimal hydrothermal performance factor (HTPF), achieving a maximum improvement of 32% compared to the benchmark 0-OMT (finned heat sink without gates). Meanwhile, the best temperature uniformity was demonstrated by the 5-M configuration (gate diameter of 5 mm positioned in the middle), with a maximum improvement of 64.8% over the benchmark. Furthermore, a power-law predictive model correlating the variables with the objective functions was established, and multi-objective optimization was conducted in conjunction with a Genetic Algorithm (GA). The results indicated that a significant enhancement in comprehensive performance was achieved by the optimized model; compared with the initial model, the temperature rise (ΔT) and pressure loss (ΔP) were reduced by 59.06% and 39.94%.